Rebecca Watson
"I haven't spoken to (Rebecca) in years. Shame, because I did count her as a good friend. I last got something of an 'I'm disappointed in you' email when I dared make a critical comment about Skepchick." : - Athon on the JREF Forums screencap] Rebecca Watson-Rodriguez is a feminist blogger and CEO of Skepchick Industries. She is the first real celebrity of the online skeptical community: Everyone understands she is apparently famous, though most are unsure as to why. To this end she is usually introduced as, Rebecca 'Skepchick' Watson, in case anyone can't remember why she is on the stage. Rebecca's most notable achievement to date has been to fissure the online atheist community into two factions: One which would like to continue focusing on atheist issues, and another which would like to hijack the community to pursue the ideals of feminist dogma. For this, she was honoured with the bogus but aptly-named "Blag Hag" Award. (See below) Background Rebecca first appeared in the online world in early 2004, as regular forum trash on the JREF forums. Although completely unremarkable in most aspects, Rebecca had one distinguishing characteristic: possession of a vagina. This feature alone immediately elevated her to one of the forum's most popular members. Rebecca explains: : "In the land of the nerds, the double “x” chromosome is queen. The lack of women getting actively involved in skepticism has led to a peculiar deification of any female brave enough to dive into debates, engage in philosophical arguments, or just withstand the flirtatious banter that permeates online forums." : - Rebecca Watson. eSKEPTIC newsletter, November 3, 2005 By choosing to spend most of her time in the "Forum Community" - a place for the forum members to engage in general banter - rather than participate in any of the sub-fora which discuss skeptical issues, Rebecca developed a reasonable following of sycophants - whom she would later come to depend on with the launch of Skepchick Industries. On April 30, 2008, Rebecca was given a one month suspension from the JREF forums screencap] for operating a sock-puppet known as "Radial Tire". Upon her return, an administrative oversight saw her endowed with administrator permissions she was not entitled to. She then proceeded to inform the forum administrator of the slip up, who thanked her for her honesty and integrity, before rectifying the situation. That's what a mature adult would have done. But we're talking about Rebecca Watson. Upon recognising her privilege, she proceeded to examine the moderators forum for any mention of her name, then proceeded to ban users she did not like screencap]. She was summarily banned screencap] by the forum administrators, for violating several forum rules, despite her protestations that it was "just a joke" and pleas from her sycophants that she should be granted special exemption from the rules screencap] because she is popular. "Blag Hag" Award Ms. Watson was the 2011 recipient for the Female Atheist of the Year , edging out Jessica Ahlquist - who endured death threats while defending the separation of church and state in her high school - by a ratio of 4:1. And 'beating', at the ratio of nearly 18:1, the rightly famous feminist atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali . Who has placed herself in perpetual mortal peril for the rest of her life by being an active atheist, and a true positive feminist, as judged by coherent consistent behaviour rather than incoherent inconsistent platitudes. Skepchick : '' "These days I feel as if what was once a daring edginess that complimented good critical thinking has turned into more of a bitch-fest which won't tolerate criticism of any sort, where boobs and drinking have come to represent the whole affair rather than be a cheeky way of gaining some attention."'' : - Athon on the JREF Forums screencap] Traditionally, recognition within the skeptic and atheist communities has been given to those who have earned it through hard work and perseverance. For many, doing the job is it's own reward and they don't feel the need to seek any approval or back-patting from their peers and comrades. Not being a traditionalist, Rebecca decided instead to put her popularity in the JREF community to use. Using contacts such as James Randi, she managed to create an instant skeptic brand name - Skepchick International - almost overnight, and without the pain and hard work of having to contribute anything of substance. Originally conceived as an "e-magazine" devoted to skeptically themed articles, Skepchick has since devolved into a network of blogging sites promoting feminist dogma, with bloggers hand-picked by Rebecca to ensure they don't tarnish the brand with any out-of-line opinions. A public sample of the Skepchick Ltd® brand of non-misandrist non-sexually-eploitative brand of feminist promotion: http://x.co/h2Jx That clip summarises both the purpose, and the problem with Skepchick, LTD. The Bordello Party In 2010, Rebecca decided the theme for the Skepchick Party (formally the "Forum Party" before Rebecca schmoozed her way into it screencap]) should be a "Wild West Bordello". Of course, a supposedly pro-feminist organisation throwing a party themed on prostitution raised some eyebrows screencap]. Naturally, those who dared to criticise the decision were dealt with in the usual manner. SXSW Panel During the Q/A portion of the panel Alan Schaaf, founder of Imgur.com, was rudely interrupted by Rebecca Watson who claimed that Alan was being rude. On March 9th, 2013, Rebecca accuses Redditors of vandalizing her wikipedia page. When looking at Rebecca Watson's wikipedia article's edit history, there was no malicious changes between the time of the SXSW panel and the time of the tweet, except for minor edit with the addition of the words "small" and "Later in September, a staff reporter of the Mail & Guardian" . Several hours later after attention was drawn to the fact that the changes were minor, and that Rebecca was over-reacting, someone then edited the wiki article, perhaps in an attempt to give the appearance that Rebecca was right, and to distort the truth of the events. Meanwhile, on Sara Mayhew's wikipedia page... (see image ).